Itzhak Perlman at 80 – DG Celebrates by Reissuing his Complete Yellow Label Recordings
Available as a 25-CD set and as a digital edition, this anthology
brings together the 25 albums Itzhak Perlman recorded for DG and Decca
It comes out on 29 August 2025, in time for
the legendary violinist’s 80th birthday on 31 August
The collection includes works by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms,
Franck, Wieniawski, Sarasate, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Ravel, Berg and Stravinsky
Virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman’s fame and influence extend far beyond the concert hall. As well as 4 Emmy and 16 Grammy® Awards – including a Lifetime Achievement Award – and the numerous other accolades his musicianship and lifelong commitment to music education have earned him, he has been honoured by three US presidents and performed live during the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Still active as violinist, conductor and teacher, Perlman turns 80 on 31 August 2025, and to celebrate this milestone, Deutsche Grammophon is reissuing its 2015 anthology of his complete recordings for DG and Decca.
Out on 29 August 2025, the 25-CD physical version is packaged in a redesigned capbox, with each individual album featuring its original cover artwork. On the same date, the recordings will also become available for streaming/download as a single digital edition. The set includes an essay by Tully Potter, evocative session photos, Perlman’s own reminiscences about the recordings, and notes from his old friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman.
“The basics of Perlman’s approach are easy to enumerate: a fluent technique honed to near perfection, a glowing tone that harks back to the Jewish-Russian masters of the pre-war era and a little later, unmannered but secure musicality, innate good taste and an ability to adapt to the performing styles
of any number of musical collaborators.” – Gramophone reviewing the original 2015 edition
Between 1968 and 2001 Itzhak Perlman recorded 25 albums for DG and Decca, partnered by some of the greatest artists of his time. He made his Yellow Label début with a much-acclaimed Berg/Stravinsky Concertos album (with Seiji Ozawa) and won new fans for the Elgar Violin Concerto (with Daniel Barenboim) in the 1980s. He also played obbligato violin on a highly prized disc of Bach Arias (with soprano Kathleen Battle), and conducted his young protégé Ilya Gringolts in concertos by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
Other highlights of the anthology include Perlman’s concerto recordings of Saint-Saëns and Wieniawski; a “favourites” album; the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas (with Vladimir Ashkenazy); the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas (with Barenboim) and Violin Concertos (with James Levine); and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante K364 and Concertone K190 (with Zukerman).
Itzhak Perlman plays (and owns) no fewer than three of the world’s finest violins: the Soil Stradivarius of 1714, the Guarneri del Gesù 1743 “Sauret” and the Bergonzi 1740 “ex-Kreisler”.
